March Reviews: Guardians and Pwera Usog

I'm just going to cut to the chase on this one: the Russian superhero film Guardians is terrible. Most of the film is incredibly boring and the action scenes are soporific. Most of the character development in this movie is established not through flashbacks or a cleverly structured plot, but by one on one conversations with the Guardians' perpetually smug commander.

The four Guardians have strange powers; one can use telekinesis but only on rocks, one can turn invisible, one has superspeed and one can turn into a bear. Oh, and together they can fire an energy ball for some reason. Go figure.

The local release of the film is dubbed, and it does not help the film one bit. The film employs a mix of practical effects and CGI. The CGI, especially for our bear friend, is particularly horrendous, while the practical effects and makeup, especially for the main villain, make him look like a bootlegged Michael Chiklis/Pillsbury Doughboy on steroids action figure.

This movie was definitely a disappointment. In the meantime, for some fun Russian action fantasy, try Nightwatch/Daywatch instead.

Pwera Usog is a fun horror comedy from Regal films. It begs comparisons to films like Evil Dead, Peter Jackson's Braindead, and the loopy local horror films of the eighties. It treats its material a bit tongue in cheek, and there's a distinct Filipino feel to the supernatural warfare being waged between a malevolent entity and a family of albularyos in the countryside.

The film makes the choice of having as its main protagonist one of the most unlikeable main characters of any film in recent memory. Jean (Sofia Andres) seems irredeemable based on her actions in the first half of the film. The script drops hints as to why she's acting this way, but it isn't really fleshed out. Once she has her redemptive moment by the latter half of the film, that moment feels unearned, because there isn't much of an established motivation for her to empathize and be altruistic towards the other main characters.

On the other hand, there's an interesting story that could have been told with the characters of Quintin (Kiko Estrada,) his adoptive mother (Aiko Melendez) and grandmother, and the identity of the mysterious entity causing the curse. It would have been interesting seeing the worldbuilding at play, establishing the rules of Usog and other faith healer things, like, say, how John Wick established its rules of killing in its world of assassins. The actions and backstories of Quintin and company are actually central to the film and its conclusion, but they're side characters for most of the film. Maybe for the sequel they can take a bigger role.

There are lots of surprises for casual horror fans, mostly jump scares and some creepy moments, but like I said, the movie adds a tinge of humor to the mix, so it's probably not horror like people are used to, which is a plus. I enjoyed Pwera Usog for what it's worth, and I'm curious how the world can be expanded further in possible future films.